DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 Preview
DreamHack Masters Stockholm comes after a four-week break for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro scene. The tournament will feature seven teams of the top 10 in the latest HLTV rankings, including the top two teams – Astralis and Natus Vincere (Navi). The tournament will be streamed live on Twitch and will be held at the Ericcson Globe. DreamHack Masters Stockholm will mostly be considered an excellent warmup for the FACEIT Major: London tournament that is scheduled to begin next week on Wednesday, Sept. 5.
DreamHack Masters Stockholm will feature an increase in best-of-three group stage matches and a total of 16 teams competing. The prize pool for the tournament is $250,000 USD. The event is also considered part of the first season of the Intel Grand Slam. The group stage format is that the opening matches are best-of-one, while the winners’, elimination, and decider matches are best-of-three. The top two teams from each group move on to the playoffs. The playoffs are a single-elimination bracket, and all the matches will be best-of-three.
The 16 teams competing at DreamHack Masters Stockholm are Astralis, FaZe Clan, Fnatic, Gambit Esports, MIBR, mousesports, Navi, Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP), North, NRG Esports, OpTic Gaming, HellRaisers, Heroic, Ghost Gaming, TyLoo, and Grayhound Gaming.
Group A could be considered the group of death because it hosts the No. 1 ranked team according to HLTV, Astralis, but also No. 10 North, No. 12 TyLoo and unranked Grayhound gaming. Astralis’ lineup will consist of the same five starters that captured the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018 Championship earlier this summer in July.
Group B of the tournament is highlighted by second-ranked Navi and ninth-ranked NRG Esports. Also in the group are Ghost Gaming and Sweden natives Ninjas in Pyjamas. Ghost Gaming is the only team in this group that was required to qualify for the tournament, as they won the North American qualifier. The team to watch in this group will be Navi as they recently announced that Flamie will be a part of their team at Stockholm.
Group C features fourth-ranked FaZe Clan, eighth-ranked Fnatic, 20th-ranked OpTic Gaming and unranked Heroic. Heroic earned their way into the tournament by being the No. 3 qualifier from Europe. FaZe Clan won the ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018 and IEM Sydney 2018 earlier this year, while Fnatic picked up their lone title this year at IEM Katowice 2018. Fnatic earned the title at IEM Katowice by defeating FaZe in a best-of-five match. OpTic Gaming has yet to win a tournament this year but came in second place at the DreamHack Open Summer 2018 tournament.
The final group of the tournament is headlined by fifth-ranked mousesports and seventh-ranked MIBR. They are joined by 16th-ranked HellRaisers and 18th-ranked Gambit Esports. MIBR is coming off a recent victory at the ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Grand Finals. Mousesports has also performed well lately having finished second at the ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018 and in the 3rd-4th place slot at the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018 and StarSeries i-League Season 5.
DreamHack Masters Stockholm should be a lot of fun to watch and see who will come out on top heading into the FACEIT Major in London.
DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 Schedule
Note all times listed are in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
Wednesday, Aug. 29
- Astralis vs. Grayhound – 6 a.m.
- Navi vs. Ghost – 6 a.m.
- North vs. TyLoo – 7:30 a.m.
- NRG vs. NiP – 7:30 a.m.
- FaZe vs. Heroic – 9 a.m.
- mousesports vs. Gambit – 9 a.m.
- fnatic vs. OpTic – 10:30 a.m.
- MIBR vs. HellRaisers – 10:30 a.m.
- Group A elimination match – Noon
- Group B elimination match – Noon
Thursday, Aug. 30
- Group C elimination match – 4 a.m.
- Group A winner’s match – 4 a.m.
- Group D elimination match – 7 a.m.
- Group B winner’s match – 7 a.m.
- Group C winner’s match – 10 a.m.
- Group D winner’s match – 1 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 31
- Group A decider match – 4 a.m.
- Group B decider match – 7 a.m.
- Group C decider match – 10 a.m.
- Group D decider match – 1 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 1
- Quarterfinal #1 – 4 a.m.
- Quarterfinal #2 – 7 a.m.
- Quarterfinal #3 – 10 a.m.
- Quarterfinal #4 – 1 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 1
- Semi-final #1 – 5 a.m.
- Semi-final #2 – 8 a.m.
- Grand final – Noon
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